Two interesting documentaries about missing RAF Bombers

Aircraft World War II
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Two interesting documentaries about missing RAF Bombers during WW2. I’m not afraid to admit it, they brought a lump to my throat and a few tears to my eyes, emotional stuff folks.

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Josh Gates’ “Expedition X” recently did a show on a FAA Barracuda lost on one of the Tirpittz raids. ( https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0SXrRM33FSA ) He’s done several episodes on lost WW 2 aircraft ( Couple lost a Chuk Lagoon … operation Hailstone. WASP P-51 flight that went missing in the mountains in south east Ca. TBF that went missing off Anacapa Island, C-47 full of nurses that vanished off west Africa.) Also https://www.discovery.com/shows/expedition-unknown/episodes/hunt-for-the-secret-seaplane#:~:text=Josh%20searches%20for%20a%20top-secret%20WWII%20seaplane%20that,treasure%20--%20the%20only%20XP5Y-1%20still%20in%20existence.

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My brother’s father-in-law went down in Halifax DY-Y (102 Squadron) on 5th Jan 1945 near Hanover – he was the only survivor of a mixed RAF/RAAF crew (one was from South Africa), thrown clear as it disintegrated. He narrowly escaped being lynched by locals, unable to move with a broken ankle in a snowdrift. Even more remarkable, his squadron was unwittingly bombing railway yards in which my mother-in-law was trapped in a siding in a cattle-car. As if that wasn’t enough of a coincidence, it turned out the Lancaster squadron which accompanied the Halifaxes on that very mission was fueled & bombed-up under the supervision of my father.

I pieced that together from all three of them while they were alive, and research via RAF & other records. Strange world, like the second video showed you can’t help thinking about the odds against descendants being alive today, and all those who never had a chance to exist.

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Thanks for sharing that - hell of a story!

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Thanks & yeah freaked all of us out. A bomb say 15 metres to the left, and a slightly different disintegration of the Halifax, and the following family members wouldn’t exist: my wife, her brother and niece, our son, my brother’s wife & brother- in-law, or their collective 4 children & 3 grandchildren. How many’s that? 13 wonderful people so far plus all future progeny.

Only a month after the above event my Dad escaped a catastrophic bombing-up accident at his squadron base by unwittingly agreeing to swap his one day off in the month with another officer. Otherwise I & my brothers wouldn’t exist either. We’re all lucky flukes from multiple narrow escapes by ancestors back hundreds of generations, worth remembering whenever encountering a first-world problem.

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